Actavis relaunches generic contraceptive

By Alaric DeArment

PARSIPPANY, N.J. — A federal court ruling has allowed Actavis to relaunch a generic contraceptive drug, the company said.

Actavis said it had relaunched Vestura (drospirenone 3 mg and ethinyl estradiol 0.02 mg), a generic version of Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals' Yaz. The relaunch follows a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that invalidated one of Bayer's patents on Yaz. Actavis originally launched its product in January last year, but a ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada forced it to stop marketing the product two months later.

Branded and generic versions of Yaz had sales of about $347 million during the 12-month period that ended in February 2013, according to Actavis.